//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9: Face to face with the enemy 
// Story: Gusty the Great book 1- The beginning 
// by Dianabel 
//------------------------------//

Fizzy was in the kitchen drying some bowls with a cloth while humming a song. Her ears perked up when she felt a touch on her shoulder.

“Psst! Fizzy! The newbie wants to talk to you.” a workmate told her.

She turned around and saw Gusty at the door, looking at her with worry as she massaged her foreleg with the other.

“Gusty! Are you working with us?” she asked excitedly.

“Actually…” Gusty whispered.

“Oooh! I can´t wait! I mean, it´s not that I enjoy working for the emperor, but now that you´re here we can work together, and it will be much more fun!” she jumped from excitement.

“Maybe later, but first-” Gusty tried to tell her friend.

“Specially the cooking. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, because we´ll be doing that nonstop!”

Seeing that Fizzy didn´t listen, Gusty massaged her foreleg frustrated.

“I´m taking food and drinks to Grogar!” she exclaimed loud enough for every unicorn in the room to hear.

All the unicorns turned to her while gasping. Fizzy clenched her teeth.

“Yeah…. That´s totally not fun.”

“Please tell me you´ve done this before.” Gusty begged.

“I´m sorry nena, but that´s not my job.” Fizzy lamented. “Each of us is assigned with a task. Some are the kitchen like me, others clean the floor, others wipe the curtains…. And others bring food or water or wine or whatever to the emperor.”

Gusty put her hoof on her temple while sitting down, looking at the floor with fear.

“But that doesn´t mean that you have no guidance!” Fizzy said with a nervous smile, seeing that she caused Gusty to be more worried. “You can always ask a unicorn that has that job.”

“Such as?”

Fizzy said no word. She blinked.

“You don´t know, do you?” Gusty said in a mixture of frustration and worry.

“Well, I´m sorry, but we are too many in this castle! Don´t expect me to know every single one!” Fizzy said in defence.

“What about Buttons?”

“Buttons…” Fizzy tapped her chin in thought. “Hmm… She might know, yes, she´s way better than me at this thing of socializing, so it would be no surprise if she did. But it´s not like you can enter in the room where she is without Bray-”

In just a blink, Gusty was no more by Fizzy´s side. The unicorn glanced around the room.

“Where did she go?” 

Her workmates pointed at the door. Fizzy peeked her head out and saw Gusty running through the corridors. She gasped as she put her hoofs on her curls and pushed them back.

“What is she doing?!” she thought aloud as she ran behind her.

Gusty ran to throughout the corridor, only stopping to see through the bolt´s hole, hoping to find Buttons inside of a room.

“Gusty?” Fizzy yelled from behind.

Gusty gasped and continued running until she saw guards coming nearby. She hid behind the corner. A guard´s ear twitched.

“What is it?” his workmate asked.

“I think we´re not completely alone.”

"What do you mean?”

“One of those ponies is here. And not for work´s reasons.” the guard looked around. Then he pointed at a corner, which unfortunately the one where Gusty was.

“I think they´re there.”

As soon as she heard that, Gusty started to sweat. She breathed in and out. Although it was still fast, it was the slowest she could at that moment.

“Breathe, breathe.” she whispered to herself.

Hearing his hoof steps getting closer, Gusty closed her eyes and held her breath, waiting for the worst to happen.

“Where are you little unicorn?”

“Right here!” a cheerful voice said.

Gusty opened her eyes and saw Fizzy walking towards the guards.

“What are you doing here? I´m pretty sure you are of the unicorns who work at the kitchen.” the other guard asked.

“I am. But I was looking for something.”

“Which is...”

Fizzy pressed her lips. Not coming up with a word, she decided to play fool instead.

“Oh dear!” she put her hoof on her temple. “Wouldn´t you know? I forgot while walking towards here!”

The two guards massaged their foreheads.

“Right, you´re the forgetful one.”

“That´s me!”

While Fizzy was distracting the guards, Gusty walked away slowly on the contrary direction of the corridor.

“Well, you´d better go back to work if you don´t want to your back to be full of lashes again!” the guard that felt Gusty´s presence aggressively told Fizzy.

“No worries, gentlemen!”

“Hmph!”

Fizzy smiled as the two guards left. Once they were out of sight, she sighed in relief.

“That was very close. You´ve been very lucky, you know? I´ve done the same thing before and got caught, and let me tell you, the punishment is everything except-”

She couldn´t finish her sentence. She noticed Gusty running away when she turned around.

“Seriously?” she thought aloud frustrated before running behind her.

Gusty´s eyes brightened when she saw no guards at the end of the corridor. However, her joy didn´t last long, as she noticed a white unicorn carrying a bucket of water walking right in front of her. Gusty gasped.

“Care-” she tried to warn her.

But it was too late. She ended up crashing against the mare. Gusty massaged her head.

“Ouch…”

When her sight was clearer, she saw the mare, but her head was in the bucket. She covered her mouth.

“Oh dear, I´m so sorry, I didn´t mean to-”

The mare sighed frustrated.

“It´s ok. Just don´t do that again.” she simply said.

She took the bucket of her head. She looked at her dress and sighed tired. Gusty bit her lip.

“Do you want me to bring you something with which you can dry?”

The mare shook her head.

“If ye want to help me, stand aside. I´ve had a bad day and I need to be alone. Hope ye understand.”

Gusty nodded her head.

“And it would be of help if ye watched where ye´re going next time.” she added.

Gusty blushed.

“Oh… Right. Uh… Sorry about that.”

The other unicorn smiled slightly while nodding her head.

“Have a nice day.”

Gusty watched as the unicorn left.

“And I thought I was the quiet one.” she thought aloud. “Now, where´s Buttons?”

“There you are!” exclaimed Bray.

Gusty gasped.

“Oh… uh… Hi sir!”

“Where were you?” he asked upset. “I told you to wait in the kitchen!”

“I… I needed to get some air.”

Bray held his laughter.

“Missy, this isn´t going to be the last time you´re going to see the emperor. So you´d better get used to it. But I love seeing ponies being scared whenever I mention his name. Now follow me.”

“Yes sir.”

“Gusty?” Fizzy called her.

Gusty widened her eyes.

“Fizzy! What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for you! I can´t believe that you ran away because I said that it wasn´t like you could enter in the room where Buttons was to ask her if she knew somepony who brought stuff to Grogar! There´s one thing you should know about me, never ever take anything I say literally, alright?”

As Fizzy was talking, Gusty shook her head or passed her hoof through her neck to tell her to stop. But since she didn´t stop, she covered her face with one hoof, not wanting to see Bray´s reaction, but having enough field of vision to glare at Fizzy. Meanwhile Bray widened his eyes and narrowed his eyes at Gusty. 

“What?” Fizzy asked innocently and upset at the same time.

She gasped when she saw Bray.

“Oh…” she laughed nervously. “Bray! How you doing?”

“I´ve told you thousands of times to call me sir, not by my name.” he simply said.

“It´s true! I forgot.”

“Of course you do. And do you know why she would want to know which ponies do the task she´s about to perform?”

“Curiosity?”

Gusty hit her forehead with her hoof.

“Because I wanted advice.” Gusty replied Bray. “As you said the emperor is terrifying and I know what he can do to me if I do a single mistake, so I needed to know what to do and what not to do. Satisfied?”

Bray took a few seconds before saying anything.

“That makes sense. Just do as he says and don´t stand in his way, alright? Now that you know what to do and what not to do, can you please bring some darn drinks and food for the emperor and the others?!”

“Wait. What do you mean with the others?”

“He´s a reunion. Just come!” Bray grabbed Gusty by the foreleg.

As he dragged her away, Gusty frowned at Fizzy, who smiled apologetically.

“Sorry…”

“Kuma.” she whispered to her.





Gusty walked with a plate of fruit and tow jugs, one of wine and one of water. She stopped in front of the door. She took a huge breath in.

“It´s ok. You just enter, leave them their drinks and food and leave. It´s that simple. He´s not going to hurt me. At least not for now.”

She stared at the two doors. She gulped and reached her hoof to the door to knock. But before doing so, she had an idea. Looking around to make sure nopony was around, she laid her ear in the door, just to see if she could get some information for Majesty.

“So let me recap, you´re telling me that the crazy unicorn is sending spies to your castle now?” a female voice asked.

“I´m pretty sure, yes.” a menacing deep voice, which Gusty deduced to be Grogar´s, said.

Gusty gasped softly.

“He definitely knows…” she whispered worried.

“Then why are you telling us this right now?”

“Because I´ve been suspecting this lately. And I want you to have your eyes open for the unicorns in your lands. We can´t afford to lose more territories.”

“You´re suggesting we kill every unicorn?” a male voice asked.

“Do what you have to do.” Grogar simply replied.

Gusty´s ears dropped. She covered her mouth worried. If Grogar ordered that every unicorn must be killed, her daughters would be included. Ms Prickly Crops was too old to defend herself, so she wouldn´t be able to protect her little ones if that happened. Nor would she be there for them.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Grogar himself.

“For the unicorn out there, are you bringing us food and drinks?”

Gusty widened her eyes.

“How did he-”

“Unicorn?”

“Uh… Yes, my…” Gusty moved her eyes while thinking the right word to address him “emperor?”

“Then come in.”

Gusty opened the gates. She froze when she saw Grogar. Although she had heard of him, she didn´t know how he looked like or how his voice sounded like, in fact, she even had some curiosity. But never in a million years would she have imagined seeing him in flesh. The gigantic blue ram that everypony feared, responsible for all their miseries and suffering, was there, right before her eyes. He had a royal and menacing posture, as an emperor would and there was so much seriousness in his face. His eyes seemed calmed but also murderous, as a predator´s that could launch at any time on its prey. She also noticed that both his eyes and the bells in his collar were shining. She had heard that fear gave him power, which would explain how she was behind the door.

Aside from Grogar, there were also the other creatures in the room, some of them Gusty didn´t know of their existence. There were white monkey like creature with the legs of a goat,  a cat like lady, goblins and of course, the troggles.

“Why are you staring at?! Bring us our food!” a troggle ordered while slamming his fist against the table.

That made Gusty jump a little. She nodded. As she was busy laying the plate of fruit and the cups, she didn´t notice Grogar´s little but malicious smirk.

“This is the first time I´ve ever laid eyes on this one specifically, but from what I´ve seen, you won´t have to worry about this one specifically. She´s as pale as a ghost!” the biggest monkey like creature teased her.

“Let´s not discuss that.” Grogar threatened him, but he didn´t listen.

“Um… That´s because my fur is white…” Gusty said in whispers loud enough for him to hear. “Like yours.” she pointed at her fur.

“Don´t touch my fur, you vermin!” he hit her hoof.

“Sorry…”

“Hey! Have they never told you not to speak at reunions?!” the cat asked upset. “Shut up, just serve us wine!” then she laughed. “Or at least just to me.” she held her cup.

Gusty nodded and ran to the cat to serve her wine.

“You´re terrified of us, are you?” she said while tickling her chin with her claw. She turned to Grogar “I agree with Silenius, she´s of no harm.”

“Let´s not mention this again…” Grogar´s anger grew.

“What is wrong unicorn afraid that we´ve discovered your kind´s dirty secret?” a goblin accused her while teasing her.

“WHOEVER SAYS A WORD WITHOUT MY PERMISSION NEXT WILL BE PUNISHED!” Grogar got up from his seat.

Every creature in the room looked at Grogar and immediately turned quiet. Gusty was scared of the other creatures, but it was nothing compared to the fear she felt after Grogar yelled.

“Good. You may resume now, mare.” he told Gusty.

She nodded. She doubted a moment before walking to Grogar. The ram raised his eyebrow, as if asking what she was waiting for. She tried to look away, wanting to make the least eye contact possible. Seeing that she didn´t do nothing, Grogar cleared his throat. Gusty took that as a sign that he was getting impatient, so she had no choice but to walk to him. He was about to pour wine in his cup but Grogar stopped her with his foreleg.

“Not wine, water. We´ll be here for some time.” he ordered her.

Gusty nodded and fetched him water instead.

“Do the same for the others. Including Katrina.”

The cat widened her eyes.

“But I have wine.”

Grogar took her cup and spilt the wine on the floor.

“Not anymore.”

Katrina growled and crossed her arms but made no protest.

“Now, tell me, do you bring any news?”

Katrina and Silenius looked away nervously.

“Well?”

“We… have been having some trouble lately. Specially me.” Silenius replied.

“And why is that?”

“Pegasi.”

That caught Gusty´s attention. Although the only pegasus she ever had a relation with was her deceased husband, she was still curious to see how the other pegasi were doing.

“Pegasi. Again?!” Grogar asked frustrated.

“More and more of them are taking refuge in the sky. In fact, I think they founded a little town named Cloudsdale but I can´t locate it. It´s almost impossible for me to control them! So I was wondering… do you have any monsters that can fly? If so, could I borrow some of them for my army.”

Grogar massaged his forehead.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures. Ok fine. But once you´ve captured all of them and enslaved them again, you´ll give them back to me.”

“Thank you sir.”

Gusty looked at her necklace with melancholy while holding it. 

“What about you Katrina, are you having trouble with the earth ponies?”

Katrina puffed.

“Don´t let me get started… They might be the simplest of ponies, but oh boy! They are strong! I´ve recently had one of them entering on my castle to throw me down and managed to kick me. But don´t worry, I´ve had him executed. Still, I´m worried that more might start doing the same.”

“Did you hang them?”

Katrina nodded.

“Then leave his body hanging for weeks where every pony can see them. If you do that, then there should be no problem. But if there is, warn me.”

Gusty shivered at those words. Come to think, she never met an earth pony. She saw them but she never had a conversation with one. She wondered what it would be like.

Once she finished serving all of them wine, she bowed at Grogar and went to the door to leave. But Grogar stopped her from doing so.

“Mare.”

Gusty´s ears perked up. She turned around.

“Where are you from?”

Gusty stayed silent while moving her eyes from side to side.

“Why don´t you speak?”

“I thought I was not supposed to speak during reunions, my emperor.” she shyly said.

“Now you may. Don´t listen to these idiots. I am the only one you should listen to. I am giving you permission, so you can speak now.”

“The Himarelayas, my emperor.”

“That´s very far away from here. And tell me, how are you organized? Do you have kingdoms?”

“That depends on which group of unicorns you´re talking about. In our case, we´re organized by clans. But there are also kingdoms as well.”

“I see. And when did you come here?”

“Recently.”

“Your accent is different yes, but you almost sound as if you grew up here. It´s bad to lie to an emperor, you know? One more time, why did you come here?”

Gusty looked down.

“When I was a filly.”

“That´s better. So since you´ve lived here for quite time, have you heard anypony talking about an unicorn named Majesty?”

Gusty shook her head.

“No, my emperor. There might be stories about her but I… I don´t spent much time with other unicorns.”

“And why is that?” he raised his eyebrow.

“I prefer to be on my own.”

“Hm…. You look like you´re a reflective mare so it´s normal that you prefer to be alone. Sometimes the best ideas come that way. I just asked because there´s been rumours that this unicorn wants to take my throne. But changing the subject, how did you know we accepted ponies on this place?”

That question caught her a little off guard. Nevertheless, she knew what to answer.

“I didn´t. But one is always willing to try crazy things for the ones you love.”

Just like his question caught Gusty off guard, her reply caught him off guard. She noticed that he was thinking about something but she couldn´t tell what. Grogar slightly shook his head and continued his questions.

“And if you had heard about them, would you believe them?”

She raised her shoulders.

“You´ve achieved this whole empire which must have been seen as impossible before. And to do that, I bet you defeated many rulers. I think you must know at this point anypony can be defeated.”

The two of them stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, Grogar with a smirk in his face, while Gusty didn´t have an emotion on her face.

“You may go now, mare.”

Gusty nodded and left. When she closed the doors, she left out a huge breath. Many things had happened to her in her short time in the castle, but this was certainly the scariest and the strangest. The emperor was imposing but he was also very calm. And perhaps that was the most frightening aspect about him. He could have done anything he wanted to her and yet he talked to her with respect, even more than the troggles and Bray. This same ram had tortured and killed many ponies. Everything was so weird.

After taking some time to process her little conversation, she went to look for Bray.

Meanwhile the same unicorn she had bumped up with before and made her to get soaked with the bucket´s water, noticed her leaving the reunion room. 

“Hm…” she raised her eyebrow.